“The Crucible”
By Arthur Miller
Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
Early in 1692, a small group of girls in
Salem fell ill, falling victim to
hallucinations and seizures.
In extremely religious Puritan New
England, frightening or surprising
occurrences were often attributed to the
devil or his cohorts.
The unfathomable
sickness spurred
fears of witchcraft,
and it was not long
before the girls,
and then many
other residents of
Salem, began to
accuse other
villagers of
consorting with the
devil and casting
spells.
Old grudges and
jealousies spilled out into the open, fueling
the atmosphere of hysteria. The
theocratic Massachusetts government
and judicial system soon became
involved.
Within a few weeks, dozens
of people were in jail on
charges of witchcraft.
The hysteria lasted from
May to September of
1692. By the time it was
over, 19 people (and two
dogs) had been convicted
and hanged for
witchcraft, one elderly
man was pressed to
death by stones, and 150
prisoners were awaiting
trial. Five more people
died in prison.
Arthur Miller
More than two centuries
later, Arthur Miller was
born in New York City in
1915. The relative
prosperity of the Miller
family during his early
years ended abruptly with
the stock market crash of
1929. The altered status
of his family and the
misery wrought by the
Depression had a profound
impact on the
development of his social
consciousness.
Miller dropped out of
high school and
worked as a shipping
clerk in an automobile
parts warehouse.
Despite his inability to
complete high school,
he persuaded the
University of
Michigan to accept
him as a student.
Miller studied
English, drama and
journalism, and began
writing plays in
college. He graduated
in 1938.
Miller wrote over 50
works, among them
radio plays, novels,
articles, and 17 plays.
Death of a Salesman
opened two years later
in 1949. Widely
considered to be his
best play, Death of a
Salesman won a
Pulitzer Prize and
catapulted Miller to
international fame.
Miller’s personal life
became the focus of
public attention
when he married
film star Marilyn
Monroe in 1956. The
couple divorced in
1961.
Miller wrote The Crucible in
1958. Although the play
depicts the Salem witch trials
of 1692, it was a response to
the paranoid political climate
that surrounded him.
The 1950s saw the rise of
Senator Joseph McCarthy, a
demagogue whose paranoid
hunt for Communists
propelled the U.S. into a
dramatic anti-Communist
fervor. McCarthy conducted
Senate hearings that were
supposed to flush out
suspected communists from
government and other areas of
American life, including the
Arts.
The policy resulted in a whirlwind of
accusations. Many cooperated
through false confessions,
attempting to save themselves,
creating the image that the U.S.
was overrun with Communists,
and perpetuating the hysteria.
The liberal entertainment industry,
in which Miller worked, was one
of the chief targets. Some called
to testify cooperated, others
refused. Those who refused to
incriminate their friends were
placed on the infamous
Hollywood Blacklist. Those
placed on this list were denied
employment, based upon their
suspected Communist
sympathies.
Miller was called on to testify
before the House
Committee on UnAmerican Activities in
1956. Like so many of his
generation, Miller, although
never a member of the
Communist Party, had
advocated principles of
equality among the classes,
and social justice.
At the hearings, he testified
about his own experiences
but refused to discuss the
experiences of his colleagues
and associates. He was
blacklisted for his refusal to
name names, but was
eventually removed from the
list.
Comparison between the Salem Witch
Trials and McCarthyism:
1. Suspension of
rational judgment
2. People who
challenged the
authority of the court
soon found
themselves under
suspicion of guilt
3. Conscience was no
longer a private
matter but one of
state administration
The Crucible does three important
things:
1. Illustrates the belief that history
repeats itself
2. Through the retelling of the Salem
witch trials during the Red Scare of
the 50s, The Crucible helped people
to understand that often in life we
are unable to see our moment in
history very easily unless we are
aided by earlier examples, or, in
other words, unless we are able to
make a connection between what is
going on now and what has already
happened.
3. Shows the danger of mob
mentality—the kind of
thinking/action where a large
number of people act on poor
information or they act using
emotions, rather than logic.
Themes in The Crucible
• Hypocrisy
• Individual vs. the
community (unity and
exclusion)
• Authority
• Greed
• Justice vs. retribution
and revenge
• Godliness vs.
worldliness
• Ignorance vs. wisdom
• The Puritan Myth
• Order vs. Individual
Freedom
It is also a story about the
struggle between good and
evil inside the heart of one
man.